Mel Broughton, 48, was jailed for ten years today for firebombing Oxford University

A notorious animal rights fanatic behind a firebomb campaign against a research laboratory at Oxford University has been jailed for ten years.

Mel Broughton, 48, was described as an 'ardent and determined' activist.

He planned and possibly carried out arson attacks using homemade petrol bombs on college buildings at the university.

In 2006, two improvised devices, constructed with fuel and a fuse made from sparklers, exploded on Queen's College grounds, causing almost £14,000 damage.

Months later, two similar bombs - designed to stop the building of the new animal lab - failed to explode when they were planted under Templeton College as part of the same 'ruthless conspiracy'.

Shaven-headed Broughton, of Northampton, was yesterday found guilty by a jury of one count of conspiracy to commit arson, following a retrial at Oxford Crown Court.

He had posed as the acceptable face of the animal rights movement, but his own words have revealed how extreme he was.

He once declared he would not sanction experimentation on a single mosquito - even if it would provide a cure for malaria, which kills a million people a year - because he claimed an insect's life was as valuable as a human's.

At 22, he had a vasectomy so he could dedicate himself 'to the animals'.

The vegan, who led a series of aggressive demonstrations against Oxford University's attempts to build an animal research laboratory, had said: 'I campaign within the parameters of the law. It's laughable to call us terrorists.'

But his fanaticism became clear when his role in the firebomb campaign to frighten academics into cancelling the research became apparent. No one was hurt by the bombs.

A research laboratory at Oxford University was the target of Broughton's attacks

After convicting him, Judge Patrick Eccles said: 'What is not acceptable or permissible in a democratic society is for you to harass, bully and intimidate those that engage in lawful research involving animals.

'The firebombs were part of a ruthless conspiracy to instill fear in all those connected to the laboratory.'

The court heard that Broughton, an occasional landscape gardener, had 'effectively dedicated his adult life to the cause of animal rights'.

It also heard that the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Oxford. Those in which Broughton was involved were boasted of on an extremist website. He denied responsibility.

He was also a leading figure in another animal rights group Speak - 'the voice for animals' - set up in 2004 to oppose plans to build the research laboratory at Oxford.

He used a megaphone to lead chanting at the builders, and gave interviews as the group's 'law-abiding' leader. But the escalating demonstrations led the university to secure an injunction limiting them. Builders took to wearing balaclavas.

Despite Broughton's bombing campaign, and the demonstrations, the £20million Biomedical Sciences Building took its first delivery of mice in November.

Broughton was a member of a hunt saboteurs group by 16. In the late 1980s he was arrested trying to steal a dolphin from a Morecambe amusement park that he planned to release at sea.

In 1998, he was jailed after police found a bomb in the car he was in.